Marinated Tomato Salad with Herbs

I love Ree Drummond.  She is more well known as The Pioneer Woman, and I was virtually introduced to her brilliance a year or so ago by a fellow blogger, lovely hometown friend, and new mama, Courtney Fullerton (thank you, Courtney!) 

Ree is feisty and cute, and she now makes food on the Food Network with her own show.  So, of course, I am now in love.  She blogs, she photographs, she writes, she cooks... and she is the creator of one of the most delicious dishes made with tomatoes that I have ever had in my life.  I am SO excited to share this with you all. 

I made this tomato salad during our recent Pawley's trip to accompany crab cakes and cheese grits.  The tomatoes brought an undescribable tangy sweetness to dinner - a sweetness that was bold and mellow simultaneously because the sweet sugar was balanced by the tangy balsamic vinegar.  It's a blissful marriage of flavors from the vine to the mouth. 

I will be making this salad ALOT in the future, and I bet you will, too . . Enjoy!

Marinated Tomato Salad
Source:  The Pioneer Woman, www.foodnetwork.com (plug her name into the search engine)
Her blog's cooking page:  www.thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/

Ingredients:
6-8 vine-riped tomatoes, quartered
1 cup extra virgin olive oil (I reduced this to 1/2 cup, and it still had enough richness)
3-4 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons brown sugar
4 green onions/scallions, chopped
handful fresh parsley leaves, roughly chopped
6-8 fresh basil leaves, sliced in a chiffonade (rolled on top of one another and sliced gently into little strips)
S & P to taste

The Process:
Quarter each tomato, and add them to a bowl.  Chop the green onions, and add to the same bowl.  Set this bowl aside, and get ready for some fun.

Add the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, brown sugar, and S & P to a jar with a lid (Ree used a mason jar) and shake about 10 times to get all the incredible flavors combined. 

Pour the dressing over the tomatoes and onions, and toss gently to combine.  Add your fresh herbs, and toss gently once again.

Refrigerate the salad for atleast 2 hours for optimal deliciousness.
 
Serve alongside crab cakes, a deli sandwich, an omelette, roasted chicken, mac 'n' cheese, a filet of fresh fish, a big ol' grilled cheese - the options are endless! 

Brown sugar. Balsamic. Bright red tomatoes. Olive Oil.  Fresh herbs. 

~Perfection~